by Richard W. Millar, Jr.

When I was asked to do an article with joint profiles of Judge Cheri Pham and Judge Theodore Howard, my first concern was how I was going to segue between these two as they seem to have nothing in common other than they had both been appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Even that appointment was somewhat of a false connection because Judge Pham had been elected in an uncontested race and then appointed to fill out the remainder of her predecessor’s term, while Judge Howard was simply appointed.

Both judges went through “Judges College” together and then the presiding judge provided the connection I had been missing—both will be transferred to family law on November 1st. As part of that new assignment, both will receive family law training in San Francisco.

Cheri’s parents lived in North Vietnam, moving south as refugees after the communist takeover in 1954. She was born in Dalet, South Vietnam and she has two older brothers. With the fall of Saigon in 1975, the family was again forced to become refugees and immigrated to the United States, when Cheri was 10 years old. They were taken first to Guam and then to Camp Pendleton. They were lucky enough to have a sponsor who had taught English at a Catholic High School in Vietnam, so they were able to move to the San Diego area where they lived for about four years.

In 1954, when the communists took over North Vietnam, Cheri’s father was in college but had to drop out to enlist in the army so that he could save his youngest brother, the last son in the family, from being drafted. In Saigon, he had worked his way through college and eventually attended law school while supporting a wife and three children as a journalist for one of Saigon’s major newspapers. When Saigon fell, he was in his last year of law school, and that career was cut short by the takeover. He was devastated emotionally and deteriorated physically and never recovered from the disappointment of having to start over empty handed in a new country. He worked as a social worker in San Diego and eventually retired and wrote about 25 self published books in both English and Vietnamese on the Vietnam War. Cheri’s mother, who until arriving in California had been a housewife and mother, became the breadwinner when she worked in a garment factory in San Diego.

Four years later, the family then moved to Orange County. Her mother took a job as an assembler at Edwards Laboratories where she worked for 20 years until she retired in 1999. She is now 76 years old and lives in Westminster. Cheri’s father passed away in 2000.

Cheri graduated from Edison High School in 1983 and was valedictorian. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at UCLA earning a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business in 1987. She received her law degree from Boalt Hall in 1990 and then worked at the Orange County Public Defender’s Office. Later she joined the District Attorney’s Office. Her two brothers are both in Orange County, one in the computer graphics business and the other in the investment business.

By the time of her election, Cheri had been in the District Attorney’s Office for about 13 1/2 years. She and her husband, Andrew Do, have two daughters, now ages 14 and 9. Their oldest daughter is playing volleyball as a high school freshman.

And now for the “scoop.” Cheri is a recovering addict. Before the check stand tabloids run amuck with this story, however, I should add that her addiction was to . . . breath mints. She was buying them in bulk from Sam’s Club until last year when she had six cavities and had to have three root canals. Andrew had an intervention and she is now on a Mentos breath mint moratorium. Maybe that’s why it appears Sam’s Club has closed (moved?) so many locations, but I digress.

Ted Howard, on the other hand, is a third generation Californian from Pasadena. He traces his roots back to Joseph Lancaster Brent, a lawyer who came to California in 1851 (a year after statehood) with the “biggest collection of law books around.” He became an expert in authenticating Spanish land grants which had to be honored after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Most of his clients had little money and paid him in land so he ended up owning much of what is now Glendale and South Pasadena. He also served as Speaker of the Assembly. When the Civil War broke out, his Southern upbringing was too strong to ignore and he and William Gwyn, a former United States Senator, set off to the South by sea. They were to sail to the Isthmus of Panama, hike across and then pick up another ship for the remainder of their journey. Unfortunately, traveling on the same ship was General E. V. Sumner who, suspecting that they were up to no good, arrested them. They were held at Fort Lafayette and ultimately Mr. Brent was paroled by President Lincoln. He made his way to the South where he became a Major of Artillery under General Magruder. He ultimately became the last Confederate General.

Ted’s great grandfather, George Clinton Ward, was head of Southern California Edison which under his tutelage built the Southern California Edison Headquarters in Los Angeles. Ironically, one day he slipped on the headquarters floor, broke his hip and subsequently died.

Ted’s grandmother, Louise Ward Watkins, attended law school but dropped out to get married and ultimately raised seven children. In approximately 1938, she became the first woman to run, albeit unsuccessfully, for Senate in California. Ted considers her to be one of his influences in deciding to go to law school. Ted’s other grandfather was general counsel for the Metropolitan Water District in the Mulholland era.

Ted is the oldest of five boys and went to St. Philip’s Catholic School in Pasadena. From 1956 to 1961 he went to Queen of Angels Junior Seminary in what was then San Fernando but is now Mission Hills, California. In 1961, he went to St. John’s Seminary College, later graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. Ironically his class turned out more lawyers than priests and he is the third judge.

In 1964, he worked a summer job in the photolab of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The night before he was to take his LSAT, Ranger 7 successfully became the first United States space probe to transmit close pictures of the moon and Ted had to spend all night developing those pictures. It was his first all nighter and he was in no shape to take the LSAT, so he postponed it until the next opportunity. He graduated from Loyola Law School in 1968 and went to work for a general practice firm in Pasadena then known as Boyle Atwill & Stearns. In 1973, he joined the Ventura office of Kinkle, Rodiger & Spriggs and was there for about a year and a half trying tort cases. In 1975, he joined Parker Stanbury and later was part of a break off to what was then called Howard, Moss, Loveder, Strickroth & Walker.

After 41 years, he now has the “greatest job in the world.” As a lawyer, he says, he had to be concerned about the outcome whereas as a judge he is concerned about the process.

Don’t expect to get a lot of letters from either of these two judges or to see them handing out their cards. Because of the budget crisis, each had to pay for their own stationery and business cards.

Mr. Millar is a member of the firm of Millar, Hodges & Bemis in Newport Beach. He can be reached at millar@mhblaw.net.